Customer engagement is becoming so important to companies it will overtake the chief marketing officer role, according to business consultancy Bluewolf Australia.

The customer-focused consultancy has expanded to have 50 employees in Australia after its 2012 purchase of customer engagement consultancy Velteo, managing director Arlene Wherrett said.

Ms Wherrett, who said the Australian operations would be the base for Bluewolf’s planned expansion into Asia, said c

Four out of five respondents to an international Bluewolf survey conducted last year predicted customer engagement would overtake productivity gains as the chief driver of business growth.

“Consumers are using their voice to drive change in product development and also influencing other consumers and customers,” Ms Wherrett said.

“The chief marketing officer role needs to evolve to be the chief customer officer.

“The CMO needs to be more customer-obsessed, thinking about how customers want to interact with products and services.”

Ms Wherrett said customer-obsessed businesses could anticipate what their customers wanted and used both digital marketing and automation to develop “pull”, rather than “push” marketing strategies.

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